North Korea parades its own version of Russian intercontinental missile
North Korea unveiled a new intercontinental ballistic missile system at a military parade in Pyongyang Wednesday to mark the 75th founding anniversary of its armed forces.
For the first time, North Korea publicly showed off its new massive solid-fuel ICBM. In fact, it is extremely similar to the Russian-made road-mobile “Topol-M” ICBM, the name of which translates to “poplar tree.”
North Korea’s media did not provide detail about the new long-range missile, but said such an arsenal demonstrated the country’s “mighty war deterrence and counterattack capabilities”.
Lee Sung-jun, the spokesperson of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing that the South Korean and US militaries were closely analyzing the North Korean photos and reports to evaluate the weaponry displayed.
The parade came as the regime has been doubling down on its weapons development programs, lambasting what it calls a U.S. “hostile” policy and stressing its principle of “nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation.”
Pyongyang has also hardened its rhetoric against Seoul, naming the southern neighbor an “undoubted” enemy and calling for an exponential increase in its nuclear arsenal.